Fencing tool



Oct. 10, 1933. R. M; SHEPHERD FENCING TOOL Filed Feb. 14, 1931 E-.M-SZTE/ZJZTEI'd nay- Y a Patented Oct. 10, 1933 UNHTED STATES FENCING TOOLRalph M. Shepherd, Belmont, Ohio, assignor of one-half to Robert D.,Shepherd, 7 Scranton,

Application February 14, 1931. Serial No. 515,849

1 Claim.

This invention relates to fencing tools, and

has for an object to provide a tool by means of which a staple may beremoved easily and quickly, and by means of which new staples may bedriven both in the original construction and in the repair or alterationof wire fences.

A further object of the invention is to provide a fencing toolcomprising a hammer having a handle'and a transverse head thereon, thehead terminating in a prong which extends in axial prolongation of thehead and is terminally curved and pointed to provide a fulcrum whichchanges its location to the staple at different points to promote easywithdrawal of the staple.

A further object of the invention is to provide a prong which is broughtto a point by being tapered equally from four sides, the planes of theside faces lying wholly within the planes of the side faces of thehammer head so that the.

side of the hammer head may be at times used as a fulcrum against thepost to dislodge staples which are not accurately driven and extend; ob-

liquely to the fence wire instead of perpendicular thereto.

A still further object is to provide a fencingtool which will be simplein construction and inexpensive to manufacture and will be rugged so asto withstand extreme, rough usage.

With the above and other objects in View the invention consists incertain novel details of construction and combinations ofpartshereinafter fully described and claimed, it being understood thatvarious modifications may be resorted to within the scope of theappended claim without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any ofthe advantages of the invention.

In the accompanying drawing forming part of this specification,

Figure l is a side elevation of the tool,

Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the tool,

Fig. 3 is a plan view showing the initial application of the tool towithdraw a staple, and

Fig. 4 is a View similar to Fig. 3, showing the tool during a laterstage of removing the staple.

Referring now to the drawing in which like characters of referencedesignate similar parts in the various views, the fencing tool is shownto comprise a hammer having a handle 10 and a head 11, the head .beingprovided with the usual eye 12 to receive the handle. The head isprovided with a prong 12 which extends in axial prolongation of the headon one side of the handle and is terminally curved to provide a fulcrumpoint 13. The head is connected to the prong at the eye by means of ashort, tapered neck as shown, which neck reinforces the eye toresistbreakage and at the same time reinforces the juncture of the prongwith the head to resist breakage.

The prong 12 is brought to a point by being tapered equally from thefour sides, as best indicated in Figs. 1 and 2. Furthermore, it will beobserved by referring particularly. to Fig. 2 that the sides 14. and 15of the prong lie wholly within theplanes of the corresponding sides 16and 17 of the hammer head. Consequently, the sides of the hammer headlie in planes spaced outwardly from the sides'l and 15 of the prong.

Ordinarily, to remove a staple 18 driven in the post 19 perpendicular tothe fence wire 20,

the curved fulcrum point 13 is driven underneath the staple by a blowdirected laterally from the side of the post toward the staple, asindicated in Fig. 3; When the point enters the staple, the outercurvature 21 thereof furnishes a fulcrum which changes its location tothe staple at diiferent'points while the tool is being rocked, in aplane perpendicular to the post as indicated in Fig. 4, to withdraw thestaple. That is, the fulcrum point of the exterior of the 30 prong, whenthe point is first inserted within the staple, is adjacent to thestaple, but after a the staple has been started the fulcrum point movesfrom the staple as the latter is withdrawn and thus causes the point 22to move in an are 5 and withdraw the staple nearly in its line ofinsertion. I

Frequently, the staple is not accurately driven during the constructionof the fence and lies obliquely to the direction of the fence wire.

Obviously,. to withdraw such a staple, the tool may be given a downwardblow in a plane paral- 'lel with the post to dispose the pointvunderneath the staple and, at the same time, engage the face 1'7 or 16of the hammerhead with the face of the post simultaneously with thethrust of the point underneath the staple, so that as the toolprogresses due to the force of the blow, the face which is spacedoutwardly, as above described, from the prong, then acts as a fulcrumfor the tool'while the staple is being dislodged.

To drive a new staple while altering or repairing a fence, it is simplynecessary to reverse the tool and use the hammer head in the same 105manner asan ordinary hammer. It will thus be seen that by means of thissingle tool old staples may be removed and new staples driven withoutthe use of separate tools for these two operations, as is the ordinarypractice.

to extend at an oblique angle to the straight portion and presenting asharp pointed spur adapted to enter a staple, the sides of the headlying in substantially parallel planes Wholly outside of the prong andproviding a fulcrum when the tool is manipulated parallel with thestaple supporting face of a fence post.

RALPH M. SHEPHERD.

